Formal Sentence Outline

Purpose:
The purpose of the Formal Sentence Outline is to help you organize, design, and outline your final Research Paper for this course. Now that you have researched your topic and composed a review of literature that demonstrates your understanding of the conversation surrounding your topic, you are ready to begin fleshing out your paper—one section at a time. In the last three units of the course, you will write the remaining sections of your paper (introduction, body, conclusion, and abstract), and this outline will guide you through that process.

Description:
In this Formal Sentence Online, you will organize and outline the project that you intend to write about for your final Research Paper. Your outline will include the elements listed below.
Your Formal Sentence Outline should also include a list of references in APA style and should adhere to APA convention throughout for in-text citation and style.

Elements:
Your grade is largely based on your inclusion of the following elements, as well as your development of the project. Your outline must contain the following elements.
1. Cover page and APA formatting:
You should include an APA-style cover page for your Formal Sentence Outline. Your cover page should include the following: the title, your name, and the name of your university (Columbia Southern University). The running head should include up to 50 characters from the title of the paper, along with a sequential page number in the upper right-hand corner.
The entire outline should be double-spaced throughout, without additional spaces between sections.
2. Thesis:
The thesis statement should be provided at the beginning of the outline, and it should be labeled “Thesis,” followed by a colon. The thesis statement should be an argumentative statement that embodies the argument of your paper.
When writing your outline, make certain that every topic and subtopic is written as a complete sentence. Additionally, it is required to include in-text citations within your outline. For instance, one of your subtopics may be a direct quote; therefore, you would place an in-text citation at the closing of the sentence just as you would do if it were written in essay form. For example:
I. Hybrid vehicles are far inferior to our country’s available technology.
A. Electric cars are more energy efficient and do not have tailpipe pollutants.
1. Nissan CEO, Carlos Ghosn (2008), states, “I want a pure electric car. I don’t want a range extender that still uses oil. That is unsustainable” (para. 2).

Furthermore, any in-text citation will also have a correlating reference entry listed on the reference page. For the purpose of this outline, you will only reference the sources, which have in-text citations to match (in the outline). In later drafts, you will include every source that you used in your essay on your reference page. However, the outline only requires that you reference sources that were used solely in the outline.

3. Headings and subheadings:
You must include at least four headings in your outline, indicated by Roman numerals (I, II, III, IV). Each of these headings must have at least two subheadings, indicated by capital letters (A, B, C). The best outlines will break down these subheadings into topics, indicated with numerals (1, 2, 3). A framework for an outline might look like the following. Thesis: Hydrogen cars might be the future’s best hope for an environment-friendly family vehicle, but the unstable nature of the hydrogen that powers them is not worth the risk of personal injury.
I. There have been a number of alternative cars designed in the last decade, but none that are as efficient as the hydrogen models. (Heading)
A. Efficiency for alternative car models means production costs do not exceed the financial strain of consumers. (Subheading)